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Barrier- epetition Reply
29 March 2007
Response from 10 Downing Street epetion website
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make a public statement that there will be no more wire rope type barrier systems fitted in the UK. To agree that these are the most aggressive vehicle restraint system used on the roads and that a review of the placement of crash barriers needs to be undertaken, with those identified as dangerous for motorcycles to be fitted with a motorcycle-friendly guardrail."
Details of petition:
"The Motorcycle Action Group supports our colleagues in riders' organisations who are engaged with their road authorities in removing wire rope barriers from the road infrastructure.
Due to the open nature of the design which exposes the upright steel posts and wire cables, MAG considers that wire rope barrier systems are the most aggressive vehicle restraint system used on the roads.
It is the position of MAG UK that the main cause of injury to riders is the exposed upright posts of all vehicle restraint systems. MAG UK's aim is to improve the safety of vehicle restraint systems thus reducing the potential for injury and death of motorcyclists when impacting these systems.
Therefore MAG UK is currently campaigning for steel beam barriers to be fitted with a 'motorcycle-friendly' secondary rail and to have wire rope barriers removed from the UK roads."
Government's response
Thank you for your interest in wire rope type barrier systems and for highlighting your concerns about the need for more motorcycle friendly barriers. At The Highways Agency, which is responsible for these issues, the safety of all our customers is a primary aim.
Currently there is no evidence that where wire rope type barrier systems are used, generally for central reserves, they pose greater risk. They are also very much easier to maintain so that when damaged, the repair time is significantly reduced, cutting both the time when motorway lanes are coned off and the time roadworkers are put at risk by high speed traffic. These barriers also meet European Standards and it would be illegal and inequitable to discriminate against one type of manufacture without robust reason.
However, the Government are concerned about these safety issues and the Highways Agency has raised the concern of motorcycle friendly barriers with its partners on the European Standards Committee.
We are pleased with their reaction as it is understood that the Committee has agreed to look at the issue and to start by investigating what can be done by way of a 'motorcycle' test. The Highways Agency is also considering offering some funding for a further joint European Road Barrier Upgrading of Standards (ROBUST) project next year to kick-start this work. In this way, we will encourage other Member States also to contribute and together we can make significant progress.
The Government therefore has no current plans to replace wire rope safety barriers on the trunk road and motorway network but we continue to keep the accident performance of them under review. As indicated above wire rope barriers are generally used in the UK for central reserves and are not thought suitable for tight bends on verges, where motorcyclists are at higher risk from barrier posts. The Government's Advisory Group on Motorcycling that included representatives of motorcycle groups concluded recently that these barriers appear from the limited research available to be no more hazardous than other types of post-and-rail barrier.
We are also pleased to report that the suppliers of BikeGuard have installed in excess of 5km of this product on the outside of bends on trunk roads, mainly in the south east of England. We are continuing to monitor the accident performance of our network in other areas and have demonstrated that we are willing to take action and install protection where its use can be justified. The Highways Agency has also revised its policy for heavily trafficked motorway central reserve barriers and now require new barriers to be solid concrete. These also remain an option for the central reserves of heavily trafficked trunk road dual carriageways.
Barriers are themselves a hazard to all road users and they should only be installed where they will protect road users from worse hazards. Any decisions the Highways Agency makes as a road authority must take account of all of their customers but it is acknowledged that at times they do have to make difficult choices. To demonstrate the Government's commitment, the Highways Agency has part funded the publication of the Institution of Highway Incorporated Engineers (IHIE) Guidelines for Motorcycling and has circulated copies to all of its designers.
MAG Comment
We will be responding to the Government especially their statement on Wire Rope Barriers.
Work is continuing in Europe with FEMA granted a liaison status with the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) Technical Committee (TC) 226 "Road equipment" as representative of motorcycle riders.
FEMA will now work on convincing CEN members and the European Commission to define guardrails which will, at last, take motorcyclists into account either by modifying the current EN1317 standard or by creating a brand new European standard, such as the Spanish one, for devices to be added to existing guardrails.
FEMA was successful, through our lobbying and MAG Netherlands submission through one of their MEPs at last years debate during a TRAN committee meeting in the European Parliament to have an amendment accepted regarding crash barriers.
“Calls on the Commission to explicitly include the safety of motorcyclists in infrastructure guidelines, especially regarding motorcycle friendly crash barriers on European roads.”
See MAGs campaign website on the issue Here
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